Cases below
Active cases are estimates of the current number of people currently infected with COVID-19. This estimate is calculated by subtracting the number of cumulative cases for each day minus the total cumulative cases from two weeks prior.
The trend lines of active cases per 100,000 show a wave like pattern as we would expect in a pandemic, with the first wave occurring during the 2020-2021 fall, then the delta wave, and the most recent omicron wave.
Although all regions and county groups follow this trend, counties and regions in rural areas of the state had higher peaks throughout the pandemic, particularly in the 2020-2021 fall wave. The urban/town/rural mix and town/rural mix had some of the highest rates in the state. However, the most recent omicron wave has been slightly lower in our entirely rural and town/rural mix counties compared to the other county groups.
This trend follows into regional breakdowns where our more rural areas of the state had higher peak rates compared to the seven county metro. The most recent omicron wave has hit the Southeast particularly hard.
The charts below are the cumulative COVID cases.
The urban/town/rural mix and town/rural mix county groups have the highest cumulative case rate in the state with 22,424 and 21,998 per 100,000 as of February 1st, 2022. Our entirely rural county group has remained slightly below compared to the other county groups As of February 1st, 2022, they had a cumulative COVID case rate of 18,569 per 100,000 which was the lowest out of all the RUCA groups.
When broken down by region, the Central and Southeast planning regions have the highest cumulative cases per 100,000 with 24,432 and 24,058 respectively. The lowest rates have been in the seven county metro and Northeast Minneapolis.
Summary here.
The charts below provide the cumulative deaths where COVID-19 is a contributing factor per 100,000.
The deaths per 100,000 by RUCA show a very different story compared to the cases per 100,000. Using these metrics, the more rural a county is the higher the death per 100,000. The entirely rural county group had the highest deaths per 100,000 with 275, followed closed by our town/rural county group which was 262 deaths per 100,000.
When broken down by region, the highest deaths per 100,000 was in Northwest MN with 253 followed by Central with 250 and Southwest at 231.
Even more interesting is by EDR. This very much shows that the more rural a region is, the higher the deaths per 100,000. For example in the Southwest planning region, EDR 6W had the highest deaths per 100,000 with a whopping 323 deaths per 100,000 compared to the more “metro” EDR 9 - South Central which had a 195 deaths per 100,000.
Below is a map and charts with the percentage of the population 5 or older that has had at least one vaccination dose.
Vaccinations lag behind significantly in more rural areas, not surprisingly considering the case and death rates. The lowest vaccination percentage is in our town/rural mix counties with 61% followed by entirely rural and urban/town/rural mix county group with 64% each. Our entirely urban county group is near 80% of their population 5 and older with at least one vaccine dose.
When broken down by region, the lowest vaccination are a combination of rural and larger towns in Greater Minnesota. The lowest rate is actually in Central Minnesota with 58%. EDR 7E - East Central had the lowest in that planning region with 54.4%.
The next lowest percentage was Northwest Minnesota 60%. The EDR with the lowest was EDR 5 - North Central at 56.7%.
Interestingly, Southwest and Northeast Minnesota which contain some of our most rural counties in the state had relatively high rates. Northeast had nearly 71% of their population age 5+ vaccinated with at least one dose. Southwest had nearly 65% of their population vaccinated with one dose with EDR 9 - South Central leading the way with 65.5%.
The county map shows that the lowest vaccination rates are actually occurring relatively close the seven county metro. Counties North of that region had the lowest percentages in the state. But, counties along the western border also had relatively low percentages as well.